It is probably safe to surmise that the average American only pays attention to competitive swimming during the quadrennial summer Olympic games. I consider myself to be a fairly engaged sports fan, but I couldn’t name the current favorites for any of the swimming world championships unless they just happen to be Americans who also won high profile races in the most recent Olympics. Aside from Katie Ledecky or Michael Phelps (who is already retired), I’m not sure most Americans could name a competitive amateur swimmer until the 2021-2022 NCAA collegiate swimming season. What was once relegated to the almost exclusive domain of the summer Olympics, discussions of competitive swimming have dominated cultural debate for the first half of 2022, and the name Lia Thomas has been at the forefront of the discussion. Thomas is a transgender male-to-female swimmer who competed in women’s collegiate swimming events for the University of Pennsylvania during the 2021-2022 season after spending three years on the men’s team.1Robert Sanchez, “‘I Am Lia’: The Trans Simmer Dividing America Tells Her Story,” Sports Illustrated (March 3, 2022); https://www.si.com/college/2022/03/03/lia-thomas-pennswimmer-transgender-woman-daily-cover. Despite the fact that Thomas graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2022, the debate continued to foment as FINA, the international federation that governs the sport of swimming, issued a ruling that restricts transgender male-to-female athletes from competing in elite women’s aquatic events if they did not transition prior to experiencing male puberty.2The policy specifically states, “They are androgen sensitive but had male puberty suppressed beginning at Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later, and they have since continuously maintained their testosterone levels in serum (or plasma) below 2.5 nmol/L.” FINA, “Policy on Eligibility for the Men’s and Women’s Competition Categories,” 7-8; https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/06/19/525de003-51f4-47d3-8d5a716dac5f77c7/FINA-INCLUSION-POLICY-AND-APPENDICES-FINAL-.pdf. If anyone was not paying attention prior to Thomas’ dive into women’s collegiate sports, the transgender question is now front and center of the cultural moment. And many Christians are asking the question, “What does the Bible have to say about transgenderism?” This essay will attempt to answer that question and more specifically set the conversation within the context of God’s design for sexuality. In doing so, this essay will conclude that transgenderism is a disordering of God’s design for sexuality through the physical body that He has created.
To keep reading this essay by Evan Lenow in the Journal of Biblical Soul Care Spring Edition 2023 click here.
